Capitalism – The Other White Meat
A recent book release by French Economist Thomas Piketty, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, has set the political blogosphere buzzing like an angry hornet's nest. The book, which is a best seller but which is also trending to be amongst the least-read books of...
BANANA
Most of us have heard of NIMBY, i.e. Not In My Back Yard Turns out, NIMBY is quaint and antiquated. The new guiding principle for busybodies is BANANA, i.e. Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything. In other words, it's not enough for people to decry progress...
You Can’t Take The Sky From Me
Way back when, in 2002, a science fiction series called Firefly premiered on Fox. It was the brainchild of writer/producer/director Joss Whedon, who has made a number of TV and movie hits. The show, which takes place about 500 years in the future, can be characterized...
Simply Enforce the Law
I recently came across a rebuttal to the (my and others') oft-stated opinion that the nation's immigration laws and system are dysfunctional and broken. The rebuttal was, in short, "the laws are fine, they just need to be enforced." Sounds good, at least at first...
Capitalist Overlords
It has been observed that if you truly want to turn your brain into pudding, spend some time arguing on the internet. While not strictly true (and even less literally true - your brain will not become a product hawked by Bill Cosby, no matter how much foolishness you...
Scandal Fatigue?
The drama, scandals and controversies just keep piling up for President Obama. Hot on the heels of the VA fiasco comes the Bergdahl prisoner swap. Meanwhile, Benghazi just won't go away, the IRS targeting scandal is growing heads like a hydra, and the EPA's new...
Another Broken Promise
The press, left, right, center, fringe, nut bar, has been calling Obama to task for ordering and executing a swap of 5 Gitmo prisoners for Army sergeant Bowe Bergdahl without notifying Congress 30 days in advance, as by the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)....
Passive Pressure
Consider the Veteran's Administration scandal. Over the past few weeks, we've found out that some veterans had to wait months for medical attention and to see doctors, that some had died while waiting, that whistleblowers were ignored, fired or transferred, and that...
Preparing for Life
Part of adults' obligations to the children they bring into the world is to prepare them for their own adulthood. This means that schooling and education should be about more than learning skills and facts and training the brain to think in certain ways. Children...
Eye Pollution
The New York City Council imposed restrictions on the use of electronic cigarettes, a practice sometimes referred to as "vaping," that mirror those imposed on cigarettes. E-cigarettes are an increasingly popular alternative to regular cigarettes, because they not only...
Of the People
In the Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln declared: Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth. He was referring, of course, to the rending of the nation during the Civil War. I read a story on the Reason blog today that...
What’s in a Name?
Frankenfood. Fracking. Star Wars. Axis of Evil. Evil Empire. Shovel-Ready. Obese. Poverty. Organic. Sustainable. Fair Trade. Every one of these words and phrases generates some sort of gut check. Some are positive reactions, others are negative. Some elicit affinity,...
Economic Lessons From the 1920s
Take a peek at the 1920s figures in this table. Look at what happened to the national debt. Who presided? Harding was president 1921-1923, with Coolidge as his VP. Coolidge was president 1923-1928. (Hoover took over in 1929, the market crashed his first year, and the...
Beware the Bear
In a quarter century or so, Russia's going to be well on the way to Detroit status. Catastrophically low birth rate, the young emigrating in droves (including some that come here on student or work visas, overstay and seek asylum), and rampant alcoholism (men are...
Why I Don’t Listen
The average duration of Barack Obama's State of the Union addresses is 64 minutes. George W. Bush's, 52 minutes. Bill Clinton's, 75 minutes. Bush, Sr. Reagan, Carter, LBJ and Nixon all managed to stay under hour mark, with Nixon being the most laconic at an average of...
Twin Altars of Human Sacrifice
A little over 50 years ago, a book called Silent Spring was published. The book and its author, Rachel Carson, were and are widely credited as the beginning of the modern environmental movement. While Carson and her book didn't explicitly call for the events and...
The Brotherhood of the Mosh Pit
Many of my friends know I have a fondness for heavy metal music. Some of my friends share that fondness, some are amused, some have no opinion, but at least a few find it an inscrutable and dissonant element of my personality. It raises an occasional eyebrow when it...
The Law is the Law
A recent editorial in the Wall Street Journal, one that was little more than a "hit piece" on those who think Edward Snowden did the nation a service and a defense of the NSA's practices, posited an interesting statement: "He did not find or expose anything illegal."...
We’re Not Violent
I watched an episode of the CBS television detective series Elementary, titled No Lack of Void, last night. For those not familiar with the show, it's a modern telling of the Sherlock Holmes story, set in New York City, with Jonny Lee Miller as Holmes and Lucy Liu...
What a Statist Believes
A statist believes that it's far, far better that the government screw up your life than that you be permitted to screw it up on your own. -- me.
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